Junkman

This: is a paper model. Here is the build thread (in English): http://www.kartonbau.de/wbb2/thread.php?threadid=4149&threadview=0&hilight=&hilightuser=0&page=1

This is great fun, considering it doesn't cost anything!

Now I know what I'll dream of tonight.

It must be possible somehow to wake you sleepy bunch up with my dreams...

I keep on dreaming...

This is the closest you can get: And no, this is not a dream. It does exist.

Still dreaming...

Phhhhhhh...phhhhhhhh...I'm your father...phhhhhhhh...phhhhhhhh... This is me 30 years ago: This is me now:

In England in the 70s and 80s you'd rather found kits at a Newsagent's, than at toy or hobby shops. The same was also true for these lovely 1:43 scale plastic toy cars by NOREV.

Back then it was perfectly OK. It's nowadays they could face trouble doing it.

Well, dreaming is still legal, no?

That thing has total cult status throughout Europe. Talk about roach coaches, there isn't a man walking over here that hasn't eaten something from one of these once in life. Whoever releases a model kit of it will be rich. Very, very rich.

One of the best ever and longest running model kit shops I knew was located in Hamburg - in the back of a bicycle shop. Another really, really good one was located in the cellar of a shop for fireplaces in Liverpool. Neither of them gave any hint that they deal in plastic model kits to the occasional passer-by, you had to know they are there. In case of the Hamburg shop, you literally had to go through a curtain to get to the kits. Most people would have expected a tad more X-rated merchandise hidden behind a curtain in a shop in Hamburg, so when browsing through the kits, you could see the odd chap poking his head through the curtain and then watch his face change to total disappointment when he spotted only 'children's toys' instead of videotapes from Sweden. Unfortunately, both don't exist any more.

This kind of "teaser" business is illegal in Europe (and probably elsewhere) nowadays. It's called 'tie-in' deal (phone companies, banks and insurance companies are notorious for this kind of deals), which means you have to purchase something else in order to get what you really want, i.e. you have to buy all those kits if you want the go-kart. If done with model kits, like it was done in 1962 with the go-kart parts, it would probably never make it to the courts (pettiness), but the simple fact that it violates laws is sufficient that model kit manufacturers won't do it any more. Pitty this, really.

What I meant is that many of the American cars rendered as model kits are not available ready-made.

The Nichimo 1:16 Ford Mutt came with camping gear, a guitar, a revolver and a rifle and a driver with a separate ten gallon Stetson. Many of the old Japanese kits came with some geegaw or other. There was a series by Tamiya, where each kit contained a 1/24 car and a moped or scooter. Most of the Japanese vans contained some kind of recreational gear, like skateboards, RC models, ghetto blasters, tennis rackets, the like. The Monogram 1/24 Tom Daniel Red Baron comes with a little Fokker Triplane.

Muahahahaha...

The other night I dreamt Heller had released a Citroen H van. It looked so real, honestly, warped and twisted and sink marks and it was moulded in a hideous toothache green.

What drives me is that the models aren't available ready-made.

The 'Gear Hustler' (IIRC) edition of the AMT '65 El Camino came with a sixpack and a construction site helmet. There were race helmets in several kits, but I can't remember which. The AMT 'Tournament of Thrills' issues of the '49 Mercury, '49 Ford Club Coupe and '50 Ford convertible contained very elaborate stunt ramps. At least one issue of the AMT '65 Chevelle Wagon came with drive-on ramps. The AMT '68 El Camino came with a soap box racer. IIRC the AMT '61 annual kits - each contained some components of a go-kart. One of the late Sixites MPC Bonnevilles came with a canoe. What about Jo-Han gold cups? And does the casket in the first issue of the Jo-Han Caddy hearse count?

1/25 77 Lincoln Town Car, 78 T-bird, 78 Ford LTD Wagon, 71 Cadillac Coupe DeVille, 77 Caprice, 69 Imperial, 73 Monaco... Then usually the alarm goes off and I wake up.

You can have ours. All of it. That way we could probably take off our anoraks for the first time since 1986.